Wealth of Wisdom

Family business consultant and educator Greg McCann has decades of experience consulting to other families and helping to run his own family's business. In this interview with Keith Whitaker he shares insights into a key challenge for every family enterprise: how to develop leaders. Greg describes the elements of vertical leadership development. He also offers a wealth of tips and practices that families can immediately put to work in developing leadership in all aspects of individual member's lives.

What is the point of family governance? Many a first-generation family leader has asked this question with some doubt that there is a point. Family business consultant Katherine Grady ably describes in this podcast how governance plays an essential role in the well-being of businesses and families that last for generations. In her interview with Keith Whitaker, Katherine describes the main structures of family governance--the Board and the Owner's Council--and their roles, as well as the perhaps surprising fact that family governance may be even more important for families who have sold their operating business and are now trying to manage a foundation, family office, or investable wealth together as a family.

How do you prepare for a good goodbye? That is, the final goodbye, death. That is the fundamental question that Kathy Wiseman takes up in this podcast and her contribution to Wealth of Wisdom. In her conversation with co-editor Keith Whitaker, Kathy talks about the role of the study of anxiety in her work with families, and she draws several lessons from her experience about how to raise the question of death with aging family members and other relatives. Kathy also shares the wisdom that, while we all know that this topic is an important and difficult one, it can be handled by families in a way that provides for a good death for family members who pass away and for stronger relationships for those family members who remain.

In this episode, Tom interviews Mary Duke about family meetings. Families are very complex ‘organizations’ all on their own, and the addition of wealth brings even more complexity. Families also face many changes over time – some predictable and some unexpected – which adds tends to add stress. So, good communication is key and family meetings are a helpful way to keep members in the loop and make decisions together. Mary offers practical guidance on using family meetings effectively. What are the benefits of a family meeting? Should every family have them? What should be on the agenda? Where should they be held? Who should and shouldn’t be invited? Should you use a facilitator? What should the ground rules be?

In this episode, Tom talks to Ashvin Chhabra (one of the fathers of goals-based investing) about ‘how you can make sure your portfolio lines up with your actual goals?’ This probably sounds obvious, but it is not commonly practiced in real life. In fact Ashvin argues that investing is not really about the markets at all - it’s about you, the investor. He show how you can organize your balance sheet into categories based on your goals and then fund each of those buckets with asset classes that are most likely to deliver success. A great conversation!

Lee Hausner is one of the leaders in the field of family wealth and business. In this conversation with Keith Whitaker she shares insight on what makes families thrive, when parents should consider telling their children about wealth and how, when parents should begin giving their children access to family funds, and how to manage the question of giving fairly versus equally to the rising generation. She also offers practical direction on using family meetings to communicate and manage the family's affairs.

When should a family call it quits and go their separate ways? How can a family even think about this painful question? In this podcast, Keith Whitaker speaks with family business consultant Doug Baumoel about these fundamental questions, ones that, from time to time, any family that is managing a business or wealth together have to face. Doug reviews the concept of the 'family factor,' which measures a family's ability to navigate change together, based on shared history, shared vision, and trust. He also talks about ways to raise, in a productive manner, the question of whether to stay together or not, and he shares examples in which families actually found ways to separate without mutually-assured destruction.

Business, wealth, family, and life itself all have a way of drawing our attention away from what matters most to what matters now, from the important to the urgent. In this episode, Tom talks to Thayer Willis whose chapter answers the question: What are the key considerations in crafting your legacy? Thayer offers a path to answering that question for yourself. It begins with identifying and clarifying your values, determining how you can better exemplify your values and priorities, and examples of specific ways to talk about these important issues with your heirs.  “We apologize for the occasional glitches on the recording caused by our telephone connection. We thought about re-recording or retouching the interview, but didn’t want to risk losing the energy, freshness and candor of our original conversation. We hope you agree.”

Jill Shipley’s chapter in Wealth of Wisdom is titled, ‘How Do You Raise Responsible, Independent, and Productive Children (versus Entitled Trust Fund Babies)?’. When working with wealthy families, this question comes up as often as any other question covered in the 50 chapters of the book. In this episode, Tom McCullough interviews Jill on what she thinks the best practices are for wealthy parents when it comes to raising their children. From thinking about how children mirror their parent’s behaviours, to investing in learning and fostering a reason to get off the couch, Jill covers some great starting points for families thinking about these issues.

Though it may not be – nor should it be – the first question families ask, is often one of the most important ones when it comes to the management of their financial assets: What should my asset allocation be? When it comes to wealthy families, we can think of no better person to answer that question than Jean Brunel, the managing principal of Brunel Associates. In this wide ranging conversation, Tom McCullough talks with Jean on the goals based approach to investing and asset allocation, and his decades of work with ultra high net worth families.